Monthly Archives: October 2014

Post navigation

Lucy Kaplansky and Richard Shindell have been singing together for 25 years. And they’ve talked about making a record together for just as long. In summer 2014 an extraordinarily successful Kickstarter campaign raised the initial goal of $40,000 in 24 hours, going on to ultimately reach over $85,000, to bring that desire to fruition under the band name ‘The Pine Hill Project.’ ‘Tomorrow You’re Going,’ an Americana masterwork of great songs, gorgeous harmonies, and stunning production will be released in 2015. The album is at turns meditative, joyful, rollicking, and deeply moving, and a one of a kind musical event.

They’re back. One of the finest bands on the planet. For over 35 years, Los Lobos have been the leading purveyors on the American music scene. Their incendiary live shows at the Narrows are legendary. Always a sell out, always a blast.

Ghost-Town www.ghost-town.net Ghost-Town is the studio of artist and designer Pete Cardoso. He focuses on design and screen printed posters and has run Ghost-Town Studios for well over a decade. Working tirelessly on the craft of screen printing by hand and designing in various areas of the music, sport and entertainment industries, his work can be seen in places around the world such as art galleries, music venues and in various publications. He has work included in the permanent collection of the RISD Museum of Art as well as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and most recently was featured in the Chronicle books publication ‘The Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion and Quirk Books Gig-Posters Vol.2’. Pete lives in and operates his studio out of the small working class town of Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Doe Eyed www.doe-eyed.com Doe Eyed is a design studio that knows a thing or two about simple shapes, fuzzy textures, bright colors, patterns that make your eyes vibrate, bad jokes, and the occasional dirty drawing. Based out of America’s fabled Heartland (as of very recently, Omaha, Neb.), Eric Nyffeler’s illustration style mixes gritty geometrics with hand-drawn elements to create a sometimes whimsical, sometimes abject style that is helping to redefine the visual aesthetic of the Midwest. While his preferred medium is the screen-printed gigposter, he’s as comfortable branding a restaurant as he is designing and printing a poster for a local trashy punk band. Doe Eyed’s work has charmed the editors of publications such as Print, HOW and IdN, and has been featured in books such as Gigposters: Volume 2, Playful Type 2, Damn Good and 1000 Indie Rock Posters. Landland www.cargocollective.com/landland Landland is a very small graphic design & illustration studio in Minneapolis that was started by Dan Black, Jessica Seamans & Matt Zaun in the spring of 2007. We had all been making things for quite a while before that, but 2007 was when we actually moved into a real studio and built the loft and the walls and a massive printing table, and learned how to install sinks and lights and all of that. Now it’s just Dan & Jes. The Landland studio doubles as a fully-functional screenprinting shop, mainly focusing on record sleeves, posters and art prints. We make these things with computers and scanners and photocopiers and drawings and fun printing techniques and whatever we need to use to get the job done. We are also about to start publishing some short-run books and a handful of very limited-edition records. Where we live tends to get very cold, so a lot of times the only thing that makes sense is to stay inside and draw tessellation patterns or the names of bands or messed-up billboards or things that you remember from back when it was fun to go outside. LeDouxville www.ledouxville.com Born in Portland, Oregon, Jesse LeDoux worked for many years as an art director for Seattle-based Sub Pop Records where he created iconic album and poster artwork for such artists as the Shins (‘Best album packaging’ Grammy nominee for Chutes Too Narrow), Iron and Wine and Death Cab for Cutie before leaving in 2004 to focus on his client-based and personal work at LeDouxville. Parallel to working on commercial illustration and collaborative projects for such clients as Nike, Disney, Giro, Penguin UK, Rome Snowboards and Target, he has exhibited internationally. His work was included in the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial (2007), an installation at the University of Maryland (2008), and has work in the permanent collection of the Experience Music Project (Seattle, WA), Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, OH), and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (Kanazawa, Japan). He currently lives and works in Seattle, WA. Little Friends of Printmaking www.littlefriendsofprintmaking.com Husband-and-wife team JW & Melissa Buchanan first made a name for themselves by designing and printing silkscreened concert posters, but soon branched out into further fields, designing fancy junk for whoever would pay them money. In addition to their work as illustrators and designers, they continue their fine art pursuits through exhibitions, lectures, and artists’ residencies worldwide, spreading the gospel of silkscreen to anyone inclined to listen. The Little Friends currently live in Los Angeles with two very round cats. Their awards include honors from the Art Directors’ Club, American Illustration, and Communication Arts. Their work has been featured in books including New Masters of Poster Design [Rockport] and Handmade Nation [Princeton Architectural Press] and has appeared in magazines including Bloomberg BusinessWeek, WIRED, and Sierra.

Joe Resendes is a self-taught sculptor who creates for the sheer joy of creating. He began carving baskets out of peach pits at the young age of seven. He later began carving faces on peach pits when he one day realized that he saw a place for two eyes, a nose and a mouth. He took out his trusty pocket-knife and began carving a face. This helped solidify a lifelong passion for creating. ‘I create because it’s a passion – a compulsion. I have little interest in selling my work, but rather enjoy and love sharing my work with others in the hopes that I will take them away, for a moment. If I have taken someone away for a moment, I have succeeded.’ Joe has carved faces on bushels of peach pits. In addition, he has carved on a sundry of materials including plastic, stone, wood (tree branches and drift wood), and molded innumerable pieces of clay. He even works with bending wire, giving many of his carved faces bodies. Each one of Joe’s pieces is unique and unlike the other, exhibiting many different forms of expression. His figures mirror that of humanity, exhibiting the every day trials and tribulations of the common man. Diane DeMelo has been capturing moments in photographs for over 14 years. To her, photography is a reflection of both shadow and light, which mirrors the fragility and strength of the human condition. The photographs in this body of work aim to highlight and capture the emotion expressed in the artist’s work. An Artists’ reception will take place on Saturday, October 4th from Noon – 3 pm. Admission is free. The public is cordially invited.

American musical legend Stanley ‘Buckwheat’ Dural Jr. – along with his band, Buckwheat Zydeco – is the preeminent ambassador of Louisiana Zydeco music. If you’ve gotten into Zydeco music, or felt its influence, or watched the world celebrate this great aspect of Louisiana culture over the past 30 years it’s likely been because of Buckwheat Zydeco. Bringing the unique sound of Zydeco into the musical mainstream, they released the first-ever major label Zydeco album in 1987, and claim the three largest selling Zydeco albums of all time. No other Zydeco artist has come close to selling as many records or exposing the music to more people around the world. Over the course of Buckwheat Zydeco’s career, Buck has gigged with everyone from Eric Clapton (with whom Buckwheat also recorded) and U2 to The Boston Pops. The band performed at the closing ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympics to a worldwide audience of three billion people. Buckwheat even performed at both of President Clinton’s Inaugurals. Recent national television appearances include PBS’s tribute to Paul Simon where Buck performed with Lyle Lovett; sitting in with Paul Shaffer on The Late Show With David Letterman (and playing ‘Hot Tamale Baby’ for Martha Stewart); and feting Ozzie Ozbourne among other’s on VH-1’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. Buck was recently profiled in a ten-minute feature by Scott Simon, on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Saturday. The band has appeared six times on Letterman, and on CNN, The Today Show, MTV, NBC News, CBS Morning News and many others.

Adrian Belew is an innovative guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is perhaps best known for his work as a member of the progressive rock group King Crimson (which he fronted from 1981 to 2009) and his illustrious solo career. He has also worked extensively as a session and touring musician, most famously with Frank Zappa (‘Sheik Yerbouti’), David Bowie (‘Stage’ and ‘Lodger’), The Talking Heads (‘Remain In Light’), and Nine Inch Nails (‘Ghosts I-IV’). His 2005 single ‘Beat Box Guitar’ was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category. Rounding out the Power Trio is Julie Slick on bass and Tobias Ralph on drums. The band sold out the Narrows in 2009 and we’re excited to have them back.

Before getting too far into a phenomenal fall lineup of inter/and/national musical talent, if you missed Julian Lage and Chris Eldridge you missed talent that is deep and honest. One omnidirectional mike and a couple of old Martins and one singularly rich voice gave a form of jazzAmericana/bluejazz/dawg music a pure and crisp delivery that demonstrates how simple, unaffected music can be a powerful and occasionally spiritual force. While steeped in American Bluegrass, Julian and Critter are adventurous and talented enough to claim as their own old standards: one of the prettiest affecting versions of “Someone to Watch Over Me” you’ll ever hear. Song structures occasionally gave way to unexpected and rich improvisations that reminds us how a simple wood box with six strings (two of them in this case) can sometimes connect best with the muse.

Night Surfer, the thirteenth studio album for acclaimed singer, songwriter and performer Chuck Prophet, released September 23 on Yep Roc Records. Night Surfer was recorded in Prophet’s hometown of San Francisco at Decibelle Recording Studio and in Nashville at Alex the Great with noted producer Brad Jones and was mixed in upstate New York by Paul Q Kolderie. Of the album, Prophet comments, ‘This record is loosely conceptual but universal all the same. It’s all about a path forward, about looking around and imagining where we’ll be in 20 years if we just follow that path. And of course, you’ll find a persistent anxiety throughout; we live, after all, in anxious times. As John Murry told me after a first listen, ‘It brings a tear to the eye and blood to the johnson.” So yeah, a new record, new sound. It’s got it’s own groove with in your face guitars that snake and harmonize. They jangle too, thanks in no small part to special guest Peter Buck. The new record follows Prophet’s widely praised 2012 release, Temple Beautiful, of which Paste Magazine asserted, ‘Not since Lou Reed paid homage to the city and era that forged him with New York has there been a song cycle dedicated to a place and reality that offers the core immediacy with the thump, churn and ferocity of Chuck Prophet’s Temple Beautiful.’ Since emerging onto the music scene at age 18 as a member of the seminal rock band Green on Red, Prophet has collaborated with everyone from Warren Zevon and Kelly Willis to Jim Dickinson and Lucinda Williams among many others. In recent years, Prophet’s music has been featured in several hit television series including HBO’s ‘True Blood,’ Showtime’s ‘Californication,’ and FX’s ‘Sons of Anarchy.’ He also co-wrote all the songs on Alejandro Escovedo’s 2008 critically acclaimed album Real Animal.

Yes, It has been 35 years since the Autumn 1979 release of Jackrabbit Slim and accordingly Steve is gearing up to perform this beloved and biggest selling LP, for a limited run of dates in 2014. The Cape Cod musicians who helped him re-create Alive on Arrival in 2013 will be at the helm again. Joey Spampinato of NRBQ fame on bass, Kami Lyle on keys and trumpet; along with Lou Cataldo and Tad Price. Romeo’s Tune, of course, will kick it off. Along the way they’ll be saying goodbye to Little Jo and telling the tale of a jilted singer who should be on top of the world. Don’t miss Steve and company revisiting a jubilant time and doing their best to ‘make it all so real.’

With seven studio albums under their belt, over three million records sold worldwide, and countless nights on the road, Rusted Root, transcends age, generations, cultures and musical styles. The powerhouse ensemble’s sweat-inducing and hypnotic live performances have allowed them to tour alongside Santana, Dave Matthews Band, Allman Brothers Band, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, and The Grateful Dead to name a few. The band is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of their platinum selling ‘When I Woke’ so expect to hear a healthy dose of tunes from that release at the show.